"Then there was Louise's belief that she was only going to be an MP for three more years. She thought — and I wasn't going to argue with her — that she'd get killed in the next election.

"So, to her, it seemed much more short-term than my job as a manager, which is going to go on for another 20 years."

He also suggested his wife had been frustrated by her lack of advancement in the Tory party, despite only being an MP for two-and-a-half years.

"Listen, they hadn't promoted her yet, and it's not like she thought she had a future because perhaps she felt she was too outspoken," he said.

"She was doing her own thing regardless and maybe wasn't 'Conservative party enough' to move up the food chain."

The interview will do little to resuscitate Mensch's reputation in the Tory party, after activists reacted angrily to her decision to quit her seat and live in New York. The decision will almost certainly cost the Tories the seat in the upcoming by-election.

An image of the former Corby MP was projected on a screen during a rally at the Conservative party conference this month, only to be booed by the assembled crowd.

Asked if she enjoyed life in New York, her husband said: "It's OK. I think she likes New York. I know she misses the job."

But the Metallica manager was circumspect when asked if she would find the same degree of fame in the US which she enjoyed in Britain.

"People say 'will she go on TV in America?'" he told the newspaper.

"And I say, sure, but there has to be a job where someone wants to have her. In America, she's just another Englishwoman with a good education.

"She's not going to instantly walk on TV like Piers Morgan, who was a big personality when CNN hired him. Louise is just an MP."

Responding to the interview on Twitter, Louise Mensch wrote: "Loved interview and thought it very sweet. However; nothing, repeat nothing, influenced decision to resign other than inability to hold family life together away from him."

She described her husband as "apologetic but not a pol, doesn't do on message & I love him for it".